At noon three days
after the Silent Man left the village
of Worsted on his own searches for
the mayor there was a knock at the door of the chapel. Solaran had risen early
and disappeared to who knew where, and Sir Erich had stepped out to try to
rustle up some lunch, so only Aethelfrith was in to answer it. Standing at the
door was a young girl dressed in clothing more suited for a boy. She asked
whether she could accompany the adventurers on their mission as she hated the
village and its dreary day-to-day grind of chores and back-breaking work. She
longed for adventure. Not one to turn down a pretty face or to curb anyone’s
freedom, Aethelfrith agreed to her accompanying them when they had healed up.
Arrangements were made so that she could drop off her travelling gear over the
next few days so that her mum did not notice and they pre-arranged a meeting
point should the adventurers have to leave in a hurry.

Meanwhile, Sir Erich had called into the blacksmith’s to see
if his sword was ready – perhaps in another few days was the blacksmith’s
answer. Continuing on with his chores he headed towards the tavern to pick up
some broth for the afternoon meal. He spotted three well-armed travellers striding
through the door, so decided to follow them in.

He chose a table close enough to overhear their conversation
and realised that they were talking about his companion, the Silent Man. He
casually walked over, introduced himself and joined in their conversation. The
three newcomers introduced themselves as Jarus, Councillor of Glissom, Sir Connor,
Marshall of Glissom, and Michael his squire. They had only had to travel a few
miles after leaving the Silent Man and had come looking for his compatriots.
They asked where the rest of the party had got to, so Sir Erich led them from
the tavern and took them to the temple to introduce them to Aethelfrith.

After a brief introduction, the newcomers seemed to know
quite a bit about the party already, Jarus healed the pair of them fully and
led them back to the tavern for an afternoon of drinking and talking – most of
which involved their hunt for the grey creatures that were raiding the caravans
to and from Glissom. Sir Erich and Aethelfrith agreed to keep them informed of
any sightings they had of the grey beings before the newcomers headed for the
trail again. The two companions returned to the church to rest up for an early
start the following day.

Just as they were preparing their weapons and equipment for
the following day, the pair of adventurers heard a commotion outside. They
poked their heads out of the door to the chapel and spotted their companion,
the Silent man, returning to the village with another person leaning heavily
against him. The villagers had congregated around the pair and were cheering
the return of their mayor. The Silent Man accompanied the mayor to his
fortified manor house and was paid a gold crown for his troubles. The other two
party members joined him at the gateway to the manor and corroborated their
stories with the mayor. They asked about the large cat that accompanied him but
the mayor said that it would be fine and they would not be attacked on their
travels. They asked if they could help him in any other way as they still had
to repay their debts to the traders but he replied only if they could rid the
area of the Reivers once and for all. A little more coaxing got the mayor to
reveal that he was on his own quest and would be leaving the village soon
anyway, so ridding the area of bandits would save him the job and he could get
on with his quest much quicker. Aethelfrith puzzled over the answer and asked
if his quest was to rid himself of a curse. The mayor was truly puzzled as to
how he figured this out but said that his quest did indeed involve a curse
being lifted.

Encounters in the Forest
(Day 20 to Day 26)

The party left early the following day, with the young girl
Mary in tow. Sir Erich was not completely happy that she was tagging along with
them and feared for her safety. He thought that it might perhaps stand them in
poor light should they leave the village with her. Her mother would not be best
pleased to say the least, especially if she was returned in a casket.
Aethelfrith, as blunt as ever, thought no more of it and carried on walking out
of the village. Sir Erich and the Silent Man quickly called in on the mayor to
explain the situation and as they left his manor, bore the brunt of Mary’s
mother and sisters’ wrath for trying to take their beloved sister away from
them. Whilst a big family argument carried on around them, the two warriors
quickly slipped away to join Aethelfrith at the meeting point they had agreed
the day before.

The forest was remarkably quiet for the first few days. The third
day could have turned out more dangerous for the party, but rather than risk
injury the three adventurers climbed a tree to avoid being attacked by a large
pack of wolves as they made camp.

Whilst travelling on through the forest on the fourth day
unease fell upon the travellers. They couldn’t quite put their fingers on it,
but there was a tension in the air. All three felt as if they were being
watched and readied their weapons in preparation for a surprise attack.
Suddenly, from ahead of them the bushes started to rustle as if something very
large was moving through them. A loud, booming voice called for them to “Hold”
and two very large mastiffs burst from the undergrowth before them.

A huge pale skinned man followed the dogs out of the forest.
Standing at around five metres tall, wielding a large battle axe and wearing a
chain hauberk with a huge white cat pelt around his shoulders the Frost Giant approached
them. His large purse of coin, elaborate hunting horn and lushly decorated
human-sized hammer amulet tucked into his belt jingled as he came to a halt. He
asked them what they were doing in the forest and fearing the worst they decided
to tell the truth. They mentioned that the three of them were hunting down a
community of about twenty bandits called Reivers. This impressed the giant and
he fell into an easy conversation with the party. He said that he was hunting a
huge “fire cat” that he had spotted in the forest a few weeks ago. The party
deemed it wise not to mention that this was most likely the mayor’s cat but
said that they would give word to him at his steading in the east if they heard
any news of it. In return he gave them the location of the wise woman of the
woods they were looking for; she was located just north of Worsted in the
foothills to the mountains. He bade them a merry “Farewell” and continued on
his quest.

Around noon the
following day the party surprised a large bear attempting to feast on the grubs
from a bee-hive he had knocked down from a tree. He didn’t take kindly to the
intrusion and charged them with an almighty roar. The Silent Man slipped away
into the bushes whilst Aethelfrith charged headlong into the fray. His attack
drew the bear’s attention whilst Sir Erich stabbed it with his spear and the
Silent Man hit it from a distance with his arrows. A couple more blows from the
stalwart warriors had the bear turn tail, allowing them to bring it down from
the rear. Sir Erich and Aethelfrith then argued over who should have the
bearskin and as a result, they spoilt the pelt a little with their squabbling
over what it was to be used for thus reducing its trade value.

On the seventh day in the woods (the 26th day
since they had been magically summoned to the kingdom) they bumped into Sir
Connor and his cohorts again. As it was approaching evening and they were due
to make camp for the day, they decided to share food, ale and tales of the last
week or so. Whilst they swapped news of their encounters and lack of success in
their own missions, the squire Michael sensed that something was not quite
right. The glade in which they had camped seemed ordinary enough; a soft green
sward surrounded by large protective trees. However, he noticed that there was
no breeze in the clearing but some of the trees were creaking and swaying.
First one would creak on one side of the glade, and then several minutes later
another would begin to creak on the other side. This to-ing and fro-ing lasted
for several minutes but nothing else happened. It was only when Sir Erich
climbed one of the trees whilst it creaked that all sounds ceased completely.
They spent an uneasy evening around their camp fire but nothing else happened
that night.

Orcs! (Day 27)

The two parties split again early the following day to
pursue their own goals. The marshal and his followers headed north whilst the
adventurers changed direction for the first time since leaving the village. The
decided to head east instead of carrying on with the south-easterly direction
they had been sticking to until then.

After a few hours of walking, the trees began to thin out
and the undergrowth started to become a little thicker. Just before noon, as they made their way through the
undergrowth, they heard gruff voices arguing in Vasic, the common tongue of the
party. They crept closer to the commotion, concealed by the bushes and tall
grasses, and spotted two ugly creatures arguing over a pot of honey in front of
an upturned cart with no sign of any draft animals. The whole scene was covered
in footprints of man-sized creatures who had only been there maybe an hour or
so previously. Both of the arguing creatures had sharp teeth and long talons
but were of different colours; one grey with yellow eyes and the other black
with golden eyes. They were definitely of the same species but not something
anyone had encountered before. As the party thrust their way into the clearing
the argumentative pair looked up, puzzled looks came over their faces due to the
interruption, but they soon carried on arguing over the pot of honey again.
Aethelfrith grabbed another pot of honey from the cart and gave it to them and
said that they now had one each. Again, this brought a puzzled expression to
their faces but they seemed pleased that they had one pot of honey each.

Sir Erich and the Silent Man started to check over the cart
to see what was on it and Aethelfrith sat watching the little critters with a
smile on his face. Suddenly, they heard a movement coming from the undergrowth
ahead of them. Before they could retreat into cover, a war-band of man-sized
grey creatures burst from the bushes. The well-armed and armoured beings
spotted the party looting their cart and charged towards them. The little
creatures looked up at Aethelfrith as he and Sir Erich formed a small shield
wall flanked by the cart and asked if there was going to be a fight.
Aethelfrith answered in the affirmative and braced himself for the first
impact. The Silent Man, meanwhile had headed back towards the nearest cover,
but he had been seen too. The orcs screamed war cries at the party and charged
home across the clearing.